Saturday, May 3

Six new caged birds from Barracuda Studios are just about to fly…

Barracuda Studios
have given us six new reasons to build your stashed Birdcage Corsair with their
new decal sheet in three scales shipping in a few days. Let’s take a look at
them with some piccies of the originals to get you pumped up!

Barracuda Studios is proud to announce a new decal sheet in
1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 scales for the F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair.

This sheet has been in development for quite a long time. A
lot of new research has revealed some interesting new details on some of the
better known paint schemes. We have worked closely with some well-known Corsair
experts and have spent many hours scrutinizing the original photos and
discussing scheme specifications and field painting practices and anomalies.

“Marines Dream” has been the subject of decals before, but they have been incomplete, lacking the interesting markings on the starboard fuselage.

This was her demise - an interesting dio opportunity!

The island girl pinup artwork on the cowling is also revealed to be a darkly tanned native girl, not a caucasian girl as has been depicted before. Comparisons of flesh tones of salvage crew members standing next to the pinup artwork show her skin to be considerably darker, although we do provide a fair skinned version for those who don't agree.

“Ramblin Wreck”,
in its field applied 3 tone scheme, is interesting in that it sports the
noseart on the engine cowling panel taken from Marine's Dream after it was
scrapped. (as seen above)

“White 126”, with
its rude "Tojo Eats Shit!"
inscription, is one of the filthiest Corsairs ever, and has returned from the
earlier (and now discontinued) BarracudaCals Corsairs Part 1 sheet, along with
Ken Walsh's “VIVA!” These two are
new to 1/32nd scale.

F4U-1 Corsair. Bu no. 03821 "White 485" OTU
VF-4. Flown by pilots in their final phase of training before joining the
Fleet. NAS Jacksonville, Florida February 1945. Returned from service in the
South Pacific after later versions of the Corsair reached the war zone.

Rounding out the sheet are a first ever complete depiction of Dangerous Dan's 8 Ball and the stunning Jacksonville Florida based Birdcage trainer resplendent in overall Glossy Sea Blue finish.

Detailed painting notes and fully rendered profiles are
included. A link to a forthcoming blog pages featuring
photos of the original aircraft and more in depth discussion of the schemes
will be found on the product pages.

Barracuda are very excited about this new sheet. With great
F4U-1 kits available in all 3 scales from Tamiya, we hope to see plenty of
build-ups of these interesting subjects.

Also of note Barracuda studios have thanked Jim Sullivan,
Dana Bell, Kerry Carlyle, Dave Hansen and Allan Peters for their invaluable
help in researching these aircraft.

These new sheets are now
available now to jazz up your birdcage Corsair at the Barracuda Website